Brewing a Perfect Herbal Medicine

This is about how to brew Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with 啞巴媳婦 Medicine Brewing Pot. It's sold at any Chinese grocery stores. The pot has standard shape and simple instructions. Mine happened to be an used one. I don't have any instructional manual.

Here is my instruction for what I learned by trials and errors.

1. Empty the herbs into the pot
2. Add enough water to cover the herbs. At least 3 cups, it depends on the amount of ingredient. I normally add half cup extra to the soaking process in the first brew.
3. Soak for 30 minutes. 
4. Plug the power cord into the electrical outlet. 
5. I place it on my patio because it can get a little stinky during brewing. 
6. It depends on the herbs, it may take up to 2 hours to finish brewing.
7. When it's done, ready light should be lit (green). Don't let it sit on warm cycle too long.
8. Unplug the power cord and let the pot cool down before pouring the liquid into a bowl.
9. Each package must be brewed twice, unless your herbalist says otherwise.
10. There should be a 30-minute cooling time between brewing. Otherwise, the pot may crack.

Tips: I mix both brews and separate it into 2 doses for even flavor.

Some medicines can be bitter than others. I'd cool it in refrigerator to reduce bitterness. But herbalist would suggest taking them with candy or add sugar to improve the taste.

From measuring to brewing, it has been the tradition for centuries.

Originally from Wu Ja web page.
啞吧媳婦煎藥壺建議使用方法

1. 先放入藥材於葯壺內
2. 再放水於葯壺內
3. 水量約3碗半至4碗(但須看藥材多與少)
4. 水量需超過中間發熱體與藥材
5. 建議可以的話，浸泡20分鐘

煎煮完成時間大約值：
例：3碗半煎成1碗，約75分至90分，每增加1碗約15至20分。因為與煎葯壺功率，藥材本身的吸水量、比重、甚至氣溫都有關連，所以會產生時間差。

煎葯壺；煎煮注正常大帖葯，會超過中間發熱體，若是無法超過中間的發熱體，表示是小帖葯，煎煮出來 有可能葯液量會比較多解決方法

1. 若1.2碗時：可以放置磁製湯匙1至2支來增加藥材容量
2. 若1.5碗至2碗時，可以葯頭與葯尾一起煎煮，(放6碗水，煎出來時分兩次喝)

啞吧媳婦煎藥壺使用應注意事項

1. 中間內膽一定要每次刷洗因為水有水垢，加上有粘性的藥材會產生藥垢，附著在內膽，會影響煎煮的準確度
2. 煎煮藥頭不能馬上煎煮藥尾中間一定要間格15分鐘以上，否則有可能不穩定亂跳的情況
3. 煎煮出來的藥液量，會因為藥材的多寡或吸水性，而產生不同的藥液量基本上以7分至1.2碗(175cc至300cc)均屬正常範圍